1. Field: This invention is directed to animal cages. More particularly, the invention relates to a novel drainage system for animal cages.
2. Statement of the Art: Animal cages of various types and constructions have been known for centuries. In many respects, contemporary cage structures differ very little from those utilized hundreds of years ago.
In a conventional construction, an animal cage includes a floor and a plurality of upstanding walls mounted to the floor. The walls are joined one to another at their vertically oriented edges to define a pen which encloses an interior housing area. The cage may or may not include a roof. Oftentimes, the need for a rod is obviated by construction to be of a sufficient height to preclude the animal's escape by jumping over the walls. In other constructions, a roof is mounted on the top of the walls, thereby defining an all-enclosing structure of the interior housing area.
A critical problem inherent in all cage constructions is the maintenance of sanitary conditions within the cage. Of critical importance is the proper disposal of excrement which may accumulate on the floor during the period of an animals's retention.
Conventional cage floor construction materials may include earth, a permeable mesh, e.g., a grid structure or a solid slab of material, which may be impermeable. Those cages which have an earthen floor utilize the porous characteristics of the soil to absorb, in large part, the liquid portion of the excrement. The solid portions of the excrement must be removed manually. Since the earthen floors retain a portion of the excrement, this type of construction is disfavored because of the probability of disease, virus, and germs being incubated within that excrement and thereafter being transmitted to the housed animal. It is generally considered that earthen floors create an environmental hazard which may imperil the health of the housed animal.
The cage constructions, which utilize a mesh or grid-like floor, allow for the excrement to be directed downward through the floor to a ground surface positioned beneath the floor. This type of construction is represented by the cages disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,292,582 (Rubricius); 3,698,360 (Rubricius); 3,098,465 (Ivey); 3,177,848 (Rubricius); 3,292,582 (Rubricius); and 1,840,202 (Kear). In order to avoid the disease breeding potential, as outlined above regarding earthen floors, the floor must be positioned sufficiently above the ground surface to hinder the transmission of germs and virus upward through the permeable floor. Further, access must be provided to the underlying ground surface for cleaning purposes. The construction of a cage, which is raised above such an underlying ground surface, inherently involves considerable complexity and expense in construction.
The most common animal cage floor construction includes a solid floor panel which is generally impermeable to liquid. Often, this floor is constructed f steel or concrete. Typical examples of this mode cf construction are those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,087,458 (Bennett); 3,318,285 (Betham); 3,550,558 (Sachs); 2,523,615 (Fell); and 4,057,032 (Dimitriadis).
To facilitate the cleaning of such floors, it is a conventional practice to slope the floor from the rear of the cage downwardly to the front of the cage. An open drain canal is positioned contiguous the front wall of the cage. Any excrement deposited on the floor is induced by gravity to flow downward toward the front of the cage and thereby flow into the drain canal.
Conventional kennels generally include a plurality of the cages heretofore described. These cages are typically arranged in banks, i.e., side by side and back to back, forming an elongate, linear array of cages. One drain canal typically runs the full length of the array and thereby receives and disposes of the waste products which drain from each respective cage.
Understandably, a major portion of the excrement, due to its material composition, does not flow naturally into the drain canal. This condition requires that an external cleaning effort be effected. In the most common case, an individual must enter the cage with a hose and spray the floor with a stream of water.
To clean the cage, an individual generally must wash down the floor starting at the rear of the cage and thereafter proceeding toward the front of the cage. In most cage structures, this cleaning procedure requires the individual to actually enter the cage and walk to the rear of the cage.
An individual entering a cage to perform such a cleaning operation confronts a number of difficulties. First, the individual generally comes into direct contact with the housed animal. Many of the animals housed in kennels are diseased. Further, many animals are subject to fits of distemper. As an individual enters the cage for cleaning purposes, that individual is exposed to contagions, and the possibility of physical injury resulting from animal attacks.
Secondly, the material composition of excrement is such that upon its being impacted by a stream of water, it oftentimes is scattered in all directions, often reaching an almost atomized condition. Since the animal and the individual are typically in close proximity to the excrement, they are commonly covered with a layer of moistened excrement. Observably, this condition is unhealthy to the individual as well as to the animal.
It should be understood that animals retained in kennels are generally prone to contracting disease. These animals are seriously weakened by the considerable stress created by their removal from a familiar environment and subsequent placement in an unfamiliar environment. Further, the animals are suddenly placed among a number of unfamiliar and often vicious animals. Many of the animals placed in kennels are already diseased. The high rate of transmission of disease within kennels is very well known. Therefore, to substantially wet the already weakened animal down with excrement ladened water, which excrement may be that of an adjacently housed diseased animal, can only be viewed as increasing dramatically the likelihood that the excrement soaked animal will contract a disease.
Not only is the probability of the animal contracting a disease increased markedly, but the likelihood of the individual contracting a disease is also increased immeasurably. Furthermore, the nature of these working conditions make the task of cleaning the kennels a highly undesirable task.